Exterior Paint

[Chestnut]

This is pointed at @Tom King but anyone can chime in. I always appreciate more information than less.

We're repainting the outside of our house and previously you recommended Sherwin Williams Emerald. Is that still your recommendation?

We also need to repaint the trim, windows, soffit, fascia, and gutters. Would the same Emerald work on those surfaces or is there a better product for these parts? I'd go ask the guys at the store but they aren't open and only take phone orders. Luckily i know the color i need already.

[Tom King]

Home for lunch.

I imagine there are other companies that make stuff equally as good, but I don't know of anything better.  It's what I would still use.

Back before they came out with Emerald, Duration was the top of the line.  I painted an old house with Duration in 2008 (many have been 2007).  It's been pressure washed most years, and still looks like we just painted it after it's pressure washed.   I put a piece of blue masking tape in an inconspicuous place, and painted over it with Duration, on that house.  I looked at it last week when I cut the grass there, and that piece of masking tape is still right where I put it.  That was interior masking tape.  The Duration is still keeping the weather off of it just fine, and all the edges are still sealed all the way around it.

I haven't checked to see what the current sale price is, but hopefully it'll be either 30, or 40% off, which it often is. 

[Chestnut]

Thanks Tom I really appreciate your advice.

[Chestnut]

@Tom King I had to replace a couple cedar trim boards that were rotting. In your experience should I prime before painting? Also with it being new lumber is there any concern over coating it too soon?

[Tom King]

I have always used oil based primer, even though the newer paints say they don't need it.  I don't have any better reason than on old houses we've worked on, I've seen much failed paint, but never seen failed primer, if the wood is still good.  They still use oil based primer on the buildings in Colonial Williamsburg too.

I haven't really done any side by side testing, to see if the primer really matters under today's best paints, so don't really have anything to go on, other than staying with what I know does work.

I don't think "new' matters as much as "dry".

By the way, I don't do any kind of social media stuff, so that @ sign in front of my name doesn't do a thing to alert me.

[Chestnut]

Thanks. I think I'm going to just use WB primer because it's what I have. I fully expect that the fiber siding isn't going to last another 15 years. I fully expect to be residing the house in 10 but we'll see.

[Chestnut]

Figured I'd post this here, painting is near complete. I have a couple windows in the back of the house but I don't mind painting those so much. I started washing the house May 14th. Here is the before.

And After

Soffits fascia gutters downspouts were all painted white with an airless sprayer. All aluminum parts were primed with the recommended primer from Sherwin Williams and painted with Emrald. I painted the downspouts outside but rain forced me to move them inside to finish drying.

The sprayer i bought (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0026SR0FW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1) really made all of this easy. Painting gutters, soffits, fascia, and garage doors by hand would have been a nightmare and taken forever. The big garage door took about 10 min. The little door took the same time but I had to tape the locking handle.

To help manage over spray i used cardboard shields. You can see them on the bottom of the door above. I used some handheld as well to protect the brick. This allowed me to paint very very close to surfaces and never have to tape or mask of areas.

I also painted our front door. I took a low angle picture to highlight the spray quality. There was some orange peal but not awful. I could have laid down a better finish with my HVLP but that would have required a different paint and the results are good enough for a front door. Beats brush marks or roller texture.

Total time in days to this point is 9 but rain really got in the way and extended the project a good 2 days. I'm looking forward to getting back to furniture, though the outside time  was really nice. Maybe I'll find some landscaping to do this summer.

[legenddc]

Looks like a whole new house. Great work! So strange for me seeing a "smaller" house with a 3 car garage. Around here it would be a McMansion with a 7 figure price tag.

[Chestnut]

1 hour ago, legenddc said:

Looks like a whole new house. Great work! So strange for me seeing a "smaller" house with a 3 car garage. Around here it would be a McMansion with a 7 figure price tag.

Thanks.

Here land is cheap and winter sucks, the 3 stall was an absolute requirement when we were looking. I don't think any of my vehicles have spent more than a few days in a row outside.

Though what is smaller in your neck of the woods? This house is 2,300 ft^2 finished with ~800 ft^2 unfinished (my basement shop). Most of the main floor has 10-12 foot ceilings. Which is on the smaller side for houses here.

[pkinneb]

Very nice Drew!!

 

[pkinneb]

1 hour ago, legenddc said:

 So strange for me seeing a "smaller" house with a 3 car garage. Around here it would be a McMansion with a 7 figure price tag.

LOL here the garages in many cases are bigger than house at least from the front facade. We are seeing more 4 car garages on new homes.

[Mark J]

2 hours ago, Chestnut said:

Maybe I'll find some landscaping to do this summer.

I have some!

[legenddc]

6 minutes ago, Chestnut said:

Thanks.

Here land is cheap and winter sucks, the 3 stall was an absolute requirement when we were looking. I don't think any of my vehicles have spent more than a few days in a row outside.

Though what is smaller in your neck of the woods? This house is 2,300 ft^2 finished with ~800 ft^2 unfinished (my basement shop). Most of the main floor has 10-12 foot ceilings. Which is on the smaller side for houses here.

That's true, I forgot about winter since ours isn't too bad. Our townhouse is 1,600 ft^2 with an 800 ft^2 basement (mostly finished) with no garage. 

Just searched in our county and most of the houses with 3 car garages are $900k+ and start at around 4,500 ft^2 but most are at least 5,500 ft^2.

[pkinneb]

Just now, legenddc said:

That's true, I forgot about winter since ours isn't too bad. Our townhouse is 1,600 ft^2 with an 800 ft^2 basement (mostly finished) with no garage. 

Just searched in our county and most of the houses with 3 car garages are $900k+ and start at around 4,500 ft^2 but most are at least 5,500 ft^2.

Wow yeah way different here. I live in the country where 2 1/2 acre lot's or more is a requirement. The new houses are similar in size to your with 3 or 4 car garages in the high $200's low $300's 

[legenddc]

7 minutes ago, pkinneb said:

Wow yeah way different here. I live in the country where 2 1/2 acre lot's or more is a requirement. The new houses are similar in size to your with 3 or 4 car garages in the high $200's low $300's 

Crazy. It would cost me about $200k to move from our townhouse to a house the same size with a 2 car garage. Most single family houses around here are on 1/4-1/3 acre.

There are new townhouses being built here .5 miles from my house that are starting at $800k. Crazy.

Back on topic, I just painted 6' of wood under a sliding door with Benjamin Moore exterior paint. It was about as thick as pancake batter. Was it the same with the Sherwin Williams?

[Chestnut]

1 minute ago, legenddc said:

Crazy. It would cost me about $200k to move from our townhouse to a house the same size with a 2 car garage. Most single family houses around here are on 1/4-1/3 acre.

There are new townhouses being built here .5 miles from my house that are starting at $800k. Crazy.

Back on topic, I just painted 6' of wood under a sliding door with Benjamin Moore exterior paint. It was about as thick as pancake batter. Was it the same with the Sherwin Williams?

Bah don't worry about being on topic.

Yes it was quite thick, maybe not quite pancake batter, well maybe depending on how thick you like your pancakes. It honestly seemed a bit thinner than the Zinnser 123 primer I was using but not really any thicker than the interior paints i use. The big difference is there is zero sediment in the paint. I ran 15 gallons through the sprayer and didn't have a single tip clog and there was barley anything that got caught by the internal filters. I can't compare to BM paints I've steered away from any thing other than sherwin williams after Tom King posted about having poor luck with some other paints a while back.

[wtnhighlander]

@chestnut, did the airless give you any trouble from paint drying in the works?  I recently bought a cheap Wagner HVLP for some exterior painting, and it worked fine with the Valspar stuff I used for the lawn furniture, but I had to be careful to keep it exercised, or paint would turn to snot in the nozzle.

This thing came with a smaller gun that is supposed to be for clear finishes. If I get the opportunity to spray a piece of furniture, I'll be sure to post a review. Not that I have high hopes....

[Chestnut]

@wtnhighlander No not at all it did cross my mind because my turbine HVLP doesn't work if the tip crusts over so i have to keep it clean. I think because there is ~2,500 psi behind the tip it blasts anything that dries out of the way. The sprayer spent multiple long periods between sprays while i had to move ladders, reposition, or do edging touch ups i wouldn't doubt if there were 2 hours breaks at times. I had to cover the paint pail to keep the top from skining over.

The big downside is the waste for small projects. You are guaranteed to waste at least a cup of material every time you clean the sprayer. It's less so for the amount in the pump and spray house as that can be recaptured easily. Mostly it's just what sticks to the outside of the pickup hose. It's also very difficult to use small quantities. Less than a pint of paint in a 1 gallon can or less than a quart in a 5 gallon pail and there isn't enough for the sprayer to work.

For detailed hard to coat objects the waste would be worth it. I wish i had this when i coated my firewood rack.

[Tom King]

I just pull the tip out, clean that, and drop the sprayer in a bucket of water, between days of painting, or even coats the same day.  I put a piece of Saran wrap over the paint in the bucket between days.

A top quality gun, that can take LPFF (low pressure fine finish) tips can match any HVLP quality of spray.  There are many tip sizes for different fan widths, and paint thicknesses.  The Fine Finish tips came about from the air assisted airless rigs, and then they figured out that they would work with regular airless.  The air assist helps blow out the hard streams on the edges of the fan at low pressure.  The tips do the same thing.  A couple of years later, they figured out how to make them work with lower pressure.  I sold the AAA rig as soon as they came out with the FF tips for airless guns, and I hadn't had it long.

The low pressure changes airless spraying to a much less violent endeavor.   I use low pressure tips for everything except large surface area outside surfaces.  They don't flow as much paint as the regular tips do.

My pump is probably 25 years old, but I upgraded to one of the newer guns, a few years back, and put a pressure gauge on the pump end of the hose.  The low pressure tips only require about half of the pressure that the regular ones do.  The pressure gauge lets you start at the right point without having to waste a pint of paint once you have already figured out the right pressure for the tip, and paint (don't forget to write it down for any paint).

I push the paint in the rig back in the bucket with water, and stop when it gets thin. Turn the tip backwards for that, or take it out.  That saves a lot of the waste.  For inside work, I have a short 1/4" hose.  I think it's 15 feet but may be a little longer.  That hose doesn't waste as much paint as the 150' 3/8" hose that gets used outside.

Talking about garages, the last house I sold here had a 2 car, and 1 motorhome garage.  The RV slot had sewer hookups (one on each side so you could drive in either way, and had room for slideouts)  in it, and was drive through for the RV.  There were a few people lined up wanting it before I put a price on it.  I never put a price on one until I was through with it, and ready to sell it.

[Tom King]

One day last week, I came home after doing all I wanted to do that day, and Pam had the tack room cleaned out, and wanted it painted.  I sprayed one coat on it before Supper, and one after.  Each coat was two gallons, and took about 10 minutes for each coat.  I used a 1 foot tip extension, and whatever tip and setup the rig was at for the last thing I had sprayed with it.  Picture is after she painted the floor the next day.  I painted over wall switches, outlets, and anything else that was in the open.  She had white plastic grocery bags over the lights, so I could see.

The airless rig paid off that day.  She did have my supplied air rig pulled out, and ready to go, so that was a big help.